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tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  January 25, 2012 4:00pm-5:00pm PST

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americans. >> the brightest star congress has ever seen. >> i was watching that happen live, john, it was really an extraordinary moment to happen on the house floor today. >> it is. we wish the best to gabbie giffords. it was nice to see democrats and republicans come together to pay such an emotional tribute to her. thanks so much. we were just mentioning speaker gingrich's ad. a strategist said they heard about 220,000. jeb bush as as guest as we lead you up to the floor of the debate. erin burnett "outfront" starts now. president obama tells millionaires they need to pay up. but will the super tax or is surtax on the super rich be enough? and the latest polls from gop
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race less than a week until the florida primary and it's a virtual dead heat between mitt and newt. absentee voters may make the difference. a navy s.e.a.l. rescuing american from pirates. it's real life. it's real life. we go there tonight. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. tonight, the super rich surtax. okay, i keep stumbling on that one. but president obama today went on the road to press a theme from his state of the union address telling millionaires they need to pay up. >> if you make more than a million dollars a year you should pay a tax rate of at least 30%. >> all right, the president's proposal would affect about 240,000 tax filers across the
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country. an expert tells us it would effectively raise the top margin rate about 44% for millionaires. now, that's the highest it's been since the middle of this guy's administration when he was cutting taxes. now, putting aside the debate over whether it's fair, here's the math. tacking this group would bring in $41 billion in revenue a year. that adds up to about 380 billion over ten years. all right. that sounds like a lot of money, right? but here is an interesting thing. compare it to our debt and you'll see it is only a teeny, tiny, minute sliver. about 2.5%. the bottom line is that president obama's plan whether you like it or not, won't be enough to fix the debt problem. to fix the problem, we're going to need bigger numbers. for example, the bush tax kets are set to expire at the end of
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the year. letting them for people who make $250 million, will raise 678 billion over ten years, but if you let them expire for everyone, you're looking at $2.8 trillion and that math works. that cuts the debt by 18% immediately. big problems need bigger solutions. adam davidson is with "the new york times," john avlon, great to have you with us. adam, you've looked into the numbers and done incredible breakdowns on this. actually, you've looked at if you taxed all millionaires at 100%, it doesn't do what taxing the middle class would do. >> we tax new income. if you look at all the millionaires in america, they make around $700 billion in income and pay about $200 billion a year in taxes. the two bipartisan
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commissions -- they both gave similar numbers. we need about $400 billion either in more taxes or less spending. and so, you'd have to tax all the millionaires at much close to 100% to break that nut. now, i'm not saying we shouldn't tax the rich more. i think for equity reasons, fairness reasons, sure. maybe it's a good idea. but the math doesn't add up that that solves our problems. >> and what about when you look at the middle class? you actually had looked at what it would take to make a big difference. what kind of increases? >> the thing about the 1% is there's only 1% of them. if you add up the entire 1%, it's about $1.7 trillion and they pay i'm doing the math in my head, something like $400 billion already. they can pay more. probably a reasonable thing to propose, but there's not a
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reasonable amount they can pay that really solves our problem. i saw and am not proposing that since the middle class makes around $5 trillion a year, that's three times more than the 1% does, you can tax increase their taxes by 8% and it has the impact of taxing the very rich at 100%, so clearly, the middle class will have to share some of the burden. >> that's on the tax side. then there's the spending sign, john, which is a big way to get rid of the debt. >> that's right. here's what's important. yes, we have a spending problem in this country, but just like we can't tax our way out, we can't cut our spending out of this problem alone. domestic spending about makes around 12% of the federal budget. everybody knows this is true. yeah, you need to raise revenues, cut spending and bend the cost curve on entitlements. every time we've had a chance to do it, the committee couldn't
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find the political will to do the tough thing. tha the problem we're facing. >> now, jamal, the whole concept of raising taxes on millionaires is popular. always has been, still is. from the political point of view, that seems to be what the president thinks he can get benefit from, right? >> what the president said last night was everybody needs a fair shot in this country and everybody has to do their fair share. and i think there's a sentiment in the country that we had bank bailouts, auto bailouts, but not homeowner bailouts. the president said no more bailouts, handouts and copouts. everybody's got to participate. that's right politically. on the economic side, john is right. one piece he left out though. we've got to grow this economy. if we don't, all the rest of this stuff is still not going to get us all the way to a closed up deficit. >> on that issue, jamal, let me play something newt gingrich had to say talk k about what the
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effect of focusing taxation on this group of people might do to growth. >> i just want to comment on one thing in the state of the union last night, which i'm not sure the president understood, but if he meant what he said, it would be a disaster of the first order. >> now, obviously, i don't think jamal the president's not trying to say he can solve this all by taxing millionaires, is he? >> no, i don't think he said that at all. you need a fair shot, everybody's got to do their fair share. that's a part of this where the tax increase comes from. but he said he's going to cut off the bush tax cuts for people making over $250,000. and let's not forget, last summer, he sat at the table with john boehner and said he was willing to go somewhere on entitlement cuts. politically, i guess it's impossible for him to say certain things last night. it's easy for him to talk about
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taxing millionaires. everyone likes that. but some of the other things that would get us there. simpson bowles, helps the the wealthy, but not something people want to hear. he didn't want to touch the things that are kryptonite. >> remember, the goal here isn't just equity or fairness. it's to deal with our deficit and debt. the question is how you get there. it's going to take pain. politicians are so pain averse. they're willing to demagogue the debt, but then run waway in the other direction. especially on social security. >> the president did intimidate to john boehner last summer, he was will on entitlement cut. >> you need plans on the table.
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the question is whether we're going to find the the political will. right now is a great opportunity for tax reform. from the romney tax returns, let's get a fair, flatter tax system in place. >> adam, you look at the math and say, okay, look, 5 trillion a year in the middle class, 700 billion for the millionaires, but all this kind of masks the overall point, if you went to a flatter system, you could get rid of loopholes and end up with a wealthier paying more. >> yes, at least the intellectuals of both parties are much closer. all within five points, 20%, that we should eliminate corporate loopholes, make the tax 20%. have a simpler two or three level system. make the rich pay more, but at a lower rate.
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>> so why doesn't the president talk about closing loopholes? why instead does he choose to put out a number that says i'm punching him? >> i think he spent last summer and into the fall talking about comprehensive tax reform, closing loopholes. having a simpler system. and the tea party folks to say we're going to have tax revenue increases. everybody knows you've got to do it. but he needs a partner who's willing and able to cut the deal. >> this is about getting a deal to get his base fired up. what mitch daniels said in his republican response, he talked about closing loopholes on the super rich. >> that would result in them paying more and so theoretically, everybody would be happy. >> there's a deal to be made. >> i know very few people who would say they're not happy to may more.
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knanavy s.e.a.l.s. rescue a american aide worker. the man who wrote the book spent time with the -- comes out front from africa tonight. google, they've been collecting a lot of information about you over the years. they said they weren't going to do anything with it. but. and was it a murder or tragic accident? three afghans suspected of committing a horrific honor killing in canada. ♪
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looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. new details about the daring u.s. raid that freed an american and hostage hostage held by pirates. the navy s.e.a.l. team that killed osama bin laden parachuted in and entered. they killed nine pirates and escaped unharmed. american aid worker jessica buchanan and -- were kidnapped last october. now, there's a lot of land d kidnappings. they've been terrorizing captives and the whole point is to get ransom money. while we hear a lot about them in headlines, very few have
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spent time with them. in part, kidnapping and death are real and present risks for anyone in somalia. he went in there, lived with them, had protection of a clan. he's in nairobi right now and i spoke to him before the show and asked him about the pirates behind this kidnapping. >> well, it was based in central somalia. now, you're seeing more brutal gangs and gangs turning inwards. these two hostages that were freed, from the danish demining group, they were kidnapped on land, so oddly enough, pirates, because it's becoming more difficult for them to hijack ships at sea, they're actually as i said, turning inland and i guess you can't call it piracy
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anymore. you can call it straight up kidn kidnapping. they become more brutal. the pirates aren't at the level of the farc in colombia or taliban. it's get tog that point. >> the groups we're talking about, some of these pirates part of larger criminal groups. they have access to financing. issues with al shabaab, how big is the network? >> i would say pirate groups are less organized than people think. now, they're becoming more organized, more like standing militias. when i was there, it was more loose business organizations that cocok ko alessed around pe are money. people will get their friends and relatives, put together a gang and engage in kidnapping. there are some links to al
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shabaab. it's not like you can speak of pirates as a singular organization. >> where does the money from the ransom go? it's interesting down in, rio, gangs there want to have gold plated guns. you have other gangs that have much broader goals and more religious goals. where does the meoney go? >> i say it comes down to two things. cars and cot. cot being the narcotic drug they're addicted to and the pirate company car, the toyota surf. a baby land cruiser that less affluent pirates can afford. that's where most of the money goes. >> what do you think it was like r or could you tell us it was like for these two hostages while they were in captivity? how do you think they were treated or what can you tell us about what they might have gone through? we're looking at them now. >> yeah, i don't know too much about the particular
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circumstances, but i can major they were probably treated better than your average hostage. the pirates were so pair noid of an attack on land. at one point, one report found out that they were taken on board a hijacked ship because the pirates were so paranoid of what happened. so i guess hindsight's 20/20. they were kicked off that ship after there was a disagreement among the various stakeholders and they were forced back on land and that's when this rescue happened. jessica was experiencing a serious kidney ailment. they brought a doctor to look at her, but the resources he had were not sufficient. that's what i think determined the exact timing of this raid. >> all right. thank you so much. appreciate you taking the time. >> thank you. my pleasure. from pirates to privacy.
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tonight's under surveillance talks on google's new push. google announced today it will merge all the information it collects about you through your searches, android phones, youtube, to give you a quote more intuitive google experience. are these changes an innovation of privacy? interesting, paul, i talked to eric schmidt at headquarters and asked him about his policy on tracking personal information. about a month ago. here's what he said. >> our strategy is to make sure anything we know about you, you opt in. so if there's information about your location, you choose to share that. >> you should have been accompanied by your lawyer on that little tour because you know, they've changed their policy completely. you have to opt out in order to evade these collection of this material and the only thing
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that's voluntary about google is signing up in the first place. once you're into their system, they collect so much information about you it's really staggering. >> how does this work though from the perspective of our rights. what is the difference between opting in and out? like, hey, when i go online and order from a catalog, i have to uncheck the box that says i'm going to get more e-mails. >> it's similar to that, but the opt out provision with google is very, very difficult because they collect so many items of information in so many different services. >> you can't just opt out all together. >> no, you can't. there's not one box that says unscribe when you search google, they're getting the information. if you have google mail, they're getting the information. if you're in picasa, they're getting the information there. they track where you travel to. >> and i have to trust their
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benevolence. in all seriousness, is this going to be challenged? >> it's been looked at by federal authorities. by european authorities who are very, very sensitive to privacy, but mixed bag. we get so much information as a result of having this service. they pay for it by using this generic information about us that advertise. so you know, it's a mixed bag. >> let us know what you think. next, the polls out of florida. it is a dead heat. plus, what's the healthiest place in america? that's next. n regimen now because i never want to feel that helplessness again. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. talk to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of.
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so, loma linda, california. if you're watching there tonight, listen up. it's the healthiest town in america. home to a medical center that attracts 600,000 patients a year. loma linda does not have any liquor stores and has been tobacco free for almost 30 years. wow, you say? well, it is certainly different from other places in this country. nation which brings us to tonight's number. one. that is the number of mcdonald's restaurants loma linda will have. in a controversial move today,
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the council voted to approve the town's first mcdonald's. half the town's population is seventh day adventist and some called a front to the teachings, but the town's mayor, an adventist who supports it says quote, my perspective as a conservative libertarian is that government's role can be minimalized. we should keep people from harming one another, but government doesn't have a strong need to keep them from harming ousts. we decided to check out what else is there. they have a carl's junior franchise. the big carl, yes. the big carl is actually even worse than the double quarter pounder with cheese. yep. so maybe the mayor's right. this is more about what the golden arches represent than what they serve. still outfront, the
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"outfront" five. a murder mystery. all this in our second half. bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home.
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we start the second half of the show with stories we care about, do the work and find the outfront fyive and tonight, the surtax. president obama on the road today pushing a 30% minimum tax on incomes over 1 million.
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he's the math. it would bring in $41 billion a year. you compare that to our debt, it's about 2.5% of the total. the plan may be a good idea, but won't be enough to fix the debt problem. we need a lot bigger solutions than that. number two, the federal reserve announced it plans to keep interest rates near zero through late 2014. about 18 months longer than planned. global financial worries are a couple of reasons why. but they lowered their expectation for unemployment between 8.2 and 8.5% by the end of the year. if it drops to 8.2, that might be enough to get the president re-elected. usda announcing new rules for school lunches. this is trying to fight childhood obesity. the levels of sodium and fat are going to be cut. vegetables and fruit increased.
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the national pau toa annua ta t counsel lobbied against the measure. the ceo tells us final rules fall short in giving flexibility in the breakfast program. four, netflix is showing signs of a comeback. it says revenue went up to $876 million. looked at the fourth quarter report and said the video wrerel website got 600,000 new subscribers. they had lost a million last summer when they increased prices. it's been 173 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? it was a good day for stocks. the fed's announcement sent the dow higher by 81 points. fresh off the state of the union address, president obama is hitting the road, not wasting any time, taging his message to
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key swing states. he's traveling to iowa, michigan, colorado and arizona. yes, those are all battleground election states. over the next three days, those states have a total of 46 electoral votes. he landed in arizona today. jessica yellin is there. good to see you. it seems an awful lot like a campaign trip. is that the goal? >> well, it's not officially a campaign trip, but it does feel that way. this gets him on the local news in five key states he has to win in november. hopes to win. with a total of 48 electoral votes. i don't know you like numbers, so let me give you the math. the obama team figures they will win the carry states. the states that john kerry won in 2004. they need to pick up 19 more votes to get to 270 and so,
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they're game is where can they get those extra 19 votes and these five battleground states, a combination of these five battleground states could get them over that hump. that's why he's visiting these states. >> and obviously a lot of talk about the super rich surtax proposal, the 30%. we had run the numbers on this. and where ever you come out politically, it doesn't raise a ton of money. do you get the feeling he's going to have more specific proposals on taxes or loopholes to raise significantly more money? >> he'll have more specific proposals so that he can talk detail, but not because they expect to raise more money. the bottom line is they know we know nothing's likely to get done on taxes this year in congress. this is fodder for the campaign. and the millionaire's tax is something that plays well with his audience and plays to his message. which is that he has a vision for the middle class for the future that he wants to contrast
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with what the republicans are proposing, which provides less opportunity for the middle class. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. she'll be with the president this week. mitt romney and newt gingrich meantime in a dead heat in florida for the republican win there. got less than a week until the primary. look at the new numbers. this is our poll tonight. that's within the margin of error. rick an s every vote matters in a race like this and this is amazing. in florida, almost one in ten registered republicans is already cast a ballot. how? early and absentee voting. half the votes were cast before gingrich won the south carolina primary in such a landslide and before the debate, so how do these votes affect the race and who's going to have the momentum? this could be a make or break.
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john avalon and gloria borger are out front. gloria, let me start with you. 179,000 absentee votes were cast last week. romney was ahead of newt in florida by 25 points in the polls at that time. so does that mean that's now the absentee votes, that it's good for romney and is the enough to make a big difference in the final outcome? >> well, it's important and when you think romney was ahead tremendously in the polls at the time and you think that romney's got the money and organization to tell people to return their ballots, you've got to think that's good for romney, but early voting started the day of the south carolina primary and you know that after newt gingrich won that and whomped romney, the momentum sort of swung the other way to gingrich.
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so when people are early voting in a lot of counties around this state after south carolina, they might think, oh, gee, newt gingrich is more electable than romney and after all, that's what republicans want. they want somebody who can beat barack obama. it's really hard to gauge how that's going to turn out in the end. >> 11% of the republican vote here hispanic and obviously latino vote always crucial in florida, but could be in a tight race. the vote, both of them, newt, mitt out trying to get hispanics to vote for them. the new abc univision poll, this is a big, big win for romney. 35 to 20. but is this what you're hearing? >> no. not at all. frankly, i think gingrich has the edge with latino voters. it's incredible the attention that both campaigns are paying to the latino vote of registered
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republicans, there are about 11%, so they could be decisive in a gop primary. that's incredible. but i think that gingrich has the edge because of his rhetoric, he understand the cuban and puerto rican communities, which are big here in florida and frankly, he's criticizing romney for his rhetoric on immigration, which so far, most latinos think that it's quite negative on immigration. >> interesting because you've got newt gingrich saying yeah, i would allow the most difficult and tough immigration laws in america to go ahead in alabama and arizona and he's all for that, but rhetorically, i wouldn't deport your grandmother. that's got to be helping him here. >> that's right. he's taken a political risk to back policies like comprehensive immigration form, originally a republican pro pose sal, where
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as romney has attacked right. going back to 2008 when he tried to sort of gain points with the base hitting hard on that. that can come back to bite him in florida. it's a race between money and momentum. some of the fault lines are the hispanic community. go back to the 2010 race, those are some serious fault lines and marco rubio's manager is running the florida effort. >> calling romney antiimmigrant, but what's interesting, my understanding is marco rubio took offense at that and newt pulled it off the air. >> he did. you didn't want to get rubio upset. he's pretty popular here. what's happening with romney's kind of interesting because after being hard lined in south carolina, he comes to florida and he's sort of softening his edge saying for example, it would be fine with him if the
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dream act applied to the children of people who have served in the military. well, that's a change in position and gee, i wonder why. it's because you're in the state of florida. but one other thing about hispanic voters is it's about the economy, also. and probably most importantly i think like a lot of voters in this country, most voters in this country, it's about getting jobs and getting back to work and it's about that for them, too. >> which is interesting. we know obviously you've got tied for three, 44%. florida has been crushed. >> it's still economy issue number one, but when you bear down and realize the fluidity of this race. mitt romney was 25 points over newt gingrich just a week ago. that is a significant slip. even though it's a statistical tie, this is all very much in play and you can't piecemeal put it together.
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>> can i just ask you about the question about mitt romney and the mexican link? does that matter at all? >> not at all. because frankly, his rhetoric on immigration. let's remember that latino unemployment is at 11.5%, which is much higher than the national average, but immigration still matters. the tone you use and frankly, the tone that romney has been using is terrible. i think he's been ill advised on the issue. he's basically saying that every single undocumented immigrant has to return, leave the country or self deport. >> also a practice not really realistic, gloria. >> absolutely. >> that's right. and erin, here's what's interesting. john mccain four years ago beat mitt romney in this state with hispanic voters by like 40
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points. now, he's supporting mitt romney. coming here to campaign for mitt romney, but of course, john mccain's position on immigration has shifted as well over the years, right? he's talking more about border enforcement than a pathway to citizenship, so it will be interesting to see how mccain plays for romney here in fl florida. >> thank you. next, four women found dead in a canal in canada. was it an accident or an honor killing? there are wiretaps and we have them for you. and we're in switzerland. movers and shakers of the world are there. partying probably at this moment, but supposedly, they did some work today and we have a lot more. what are you looking at? don't look up there. why are you looking up? ♪ get outta the car. get outta the car. ♪ are you ok? the... get in the car. get in the car!
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we do this at the same time every night. our outer circle and we begin in egypt. it's one year after the start of the revolution that ousted hosni mubarak. some celebrated the anniversary. others protested the country's military leaders. does look how it looked a year ago. david ottaway spent four years as a bureau chief in cairo and we asked him what egyptians are worried about now. >> the fast dee tieruating economic situation and the continuing presence of the
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military at the helm of power. they realize their would be revolution has not produced a better life, economic life for them, and that the new regime is just as repressive as the old one. >> now to switzerland. opening day of what's called the world economic forum. this is where government leaders, business elite from around the world go. it's a quaint town in the alps. 2600 people go. spend $20,000 a person. richard quest is among them. >> erin, there are two issues here. the immediate crisis. the euro zone and global economic recovery and then there's the bigger issue. the future of capitalism. some say it's dead or needs updating. others say there needs to be a new concept for capitalize m in
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the future. now to iran trying to stabilize its central bank and currency. today, iran said it's going to increase interest rates on deposi deposits, trying to get iranian to keep their money at home. also saying it's going to make it a lot harder to sell money. an expert at carnegie, we said what's really going on in the iran economy. is it really bad enough to force them to give up nukes? >> the regime is facing unprecedented international pressure and a downward spiral in currency. many in iran use the word panicked to describe the current situation, but the leadership has shown itself willing to subject itself to hardship rather than compromise on its political aims. >> was it murder or a tragic accident? today, there were closing arguments in a case in ontario, canada, where prosecutors are accusing three afghan family members of committing a whorrifc
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honor killing. an afghan man and one of his wives are accused of killing their three danger daughters and the man's other wife. the girl's brother is also accused. the three girls and their stepmother were found in their car in a canal in kingston, ontar ontario. at first, it appeared to be an accidental drowning -- led prosecutors to charge the 59-year-old, his wife and their son with first degree murder. each year, the united nations says 5,000 women and girls are killed by members of their own families in honor killings. paula newton is covered a lot of these cases. good to see you. it is just amazing to see this and hear about this story. why did prosecutors come to the conclusion that the girls father and mother and brother had killed them? >> from the outside, it seemed
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they did not believe this family. didn't think they were acting like a family that was grieving. didn't think they called police in time. they really took what was an extraordinary step here and that was to wiretap the family, crucially, in their own minivan. got them to come back to the scene of the crime, they bugged the van. explosive evidence. they say it on. let's give you some of it, erin. it is really hard to believe if this is what the prosecution is alleging. but the patriarch of the family said to say, i say to myself, you did well. would they come back to life a hundred times, you do the same again. and then, in alluding to the kind of rebellious act that is he found out about his daughters, they were dating western boyfriends, they were dressing in a way that he didn't approve of. he said, may the devil defecate
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on their graves. this is what a daughter should be? would a daughter be such a whore? you can imagine if you're the jury sitting there and believe me there's hours of wiretap conversations, you're looking for explanations. the damage to the other family car, that lexus, what the prosecution say they did is tipped that family car with those four women inside it over in to an open canal and those women drowned. >> and let me just ask you, i know they're saying that they were traveling on a family trip together, all of them, in two cars, right? that's where they said they would have pushed it and i believe, paula, that also it appears that the daughters and the stepmother were beaten, right? that it looked like they perhaps had been beaten and unconscious and put in the car. >> reporter: well, look. this is one of the -- this is contentious. a lot of what's going on here is
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circumstantial evidence. they're asking, where is the evidence that the women -- how the women died? pathologists testified they had fresh bruises, at least three of the four victims. no way to explain. and the defense is dismissing that saying, look, if you were going to have the four women and you were going to try to kill them beforehand, the defendants have no time to do that and, look, were they going to stand there being in the words of the defense like lambs to slaughter in no, that wouldn't have happened and yet the jury time and time again is listened to this little dance between prosecution and two of the defendants that took the stand and the stories the prosecution says they just don't add up. >> paula, what would be the punishment if they're convicted? >> definitely life. we don't have the death penalty here in canada but definitely life in prison. it is an interesting way they prosecuted this. the defense -- the prosecution has had all three defendants up there. the defendants have stayed together. their stories, while contradictory, they're saying they're innocent.
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it isn't that one tried to break off from the other pleading to a lesser charge. you can't help but be riveted by the details. these girls, beautiful, intelligent girls and the kind of things they were saying to family members and social workers they wanted out of this house. >> paula, thank you very much. paula will have more of the details tonight on "anderson cooper 360" and anderson's got a lot more like -- hello, anderson. >> how's it going? >> great. >> newt gingrich continuing to say he was never a lobbyist. now a second contract released seems to raise questions than answers. what was his role at the firm that he got paid $1.7 million to do? big promises from the president in his state of the union speech last night. saying he'll go after mortgage-related fraud and help homeowners. this isn't the first time we heard the pledges and the results have been less than stellar.
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we'll talk with politics with comedian bill maher, self described liberal quick to weigh in and plenty to say about the president, as well. those stories and tonight's ridicu-list at the top of the hour. >> thanks, anderson. last night president obama declared a war on unfair trade practices in china. is china too big to beat? you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro.
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so this week china, began to celebrate the chinese lunar new year. like christmas, new year's, fourth of july all in one. it's 15 days. it's celebrated with presents, parades and fireworks and a lantern festival to help pave the way for good luck and happiness in the new year. dorgt chinese zodiak, the year 2012 is the year of the dragon. which is apparently the luckiest of all the signs. i was born during the year of the dragon so i got in to this year and looked at the numbers. this thing is big. the lunar new year in china is the world's largest human migration, bigger than mecca. people in china make over 3 billion passenger trips in this holiday. china's trains carried 80.2 million passengers, 84 million people traveled by car on january 21st. one day. that is a lot of people and there are going to be a lot more. according to china's state news
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agency, because the year of the dragon is considered so lucky, china is expecting a 5% jump of the number of babies born this year. women trying to get pregnant before may 2nd. china is big and getting bigger. well, obama and -- president obama and the gop candidates all say that the u.s. has to beat china. they're all allied this that point of view and seems like beat might be the wrong word. they want what america has, the american dream. and we were thinking there might be a different way that might be worth thinking about this. if we focused on growing the world's economic pie, so not just trying to take back things china has, a story today about how in the middle -- we needed more ipads and they go to the factory in china 2:00 a.m. and get everybody out of bed and make the ipads. it doesn't seem like that sort of thing is going to happen here. but there are other things americ